Ingram still leads Heisman guesses

Ingram still leads Heisman guesses

November 11th, 2009by The Decatur Daily in Sports - College

By Michael Casagrande, sports@timesfreepress.com

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Alabama running back Mark Ingram remains atop two of the top Heisman Trophy projections. His 144-yard game against LSU has him well in control of the polls of experts conducted by ESPN and HeismanPundit.com.

Ingram nearly doubled second-place Case Keenum of Houston with 55 total and nine first-place votes at HeismanPundit.com. Quarterbacks Colt McCoy of Texas and Tim Tebow of Florida, finalists last year, rank third and fourth in the most recent projection.

Of ESPN.com's panel of 15 experts, 10 gave Ingram first-place votes to accumulate 65 total points to second-best Keenum's 40, followed by Tebow (31) and McCloy (28).

Ingram said he had his "most awkward" encounter with a fan Monday.

"I was walking to class on Monday and this kid did the Heisman pose right in the middle of the street," Ingram said. "That was kind of funny."

Alabama noseguard Terrence Cody is a Lombardi Award finalist as of Tuesday.

He is one of the four still alive for the award presented to the nation's best interior lineman or linebacker. The other three are TCU's Jerry Hughes, Oklahoma's Gerald McCoy and Nebraska's Ndamukong Suh. All four finalists are defensive linemen.

"It means a lot," Cody said. "Not a lot of guys get picked for an award like this. I'm real happy to be in the top four. It's a blessing. I'm really representing our team because you don't get honors like this unless you have success as a team."

In his nine games this season, Cody has 20 tackles -- five of which went for losses.